run the show

1. Take charge, assume control, as in Ever since Bill retired from the business, his daughter's been running the show. The word show here simply means “kind of undertaking.” [First half of 1900s] A similar usage is run one's own show, meaning “exert control over one's own activities” or “act independently.” For example, The high school drama club didn't ask permission to perform that play—they want to run their own show. [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

Lorenzo: Celtic cannot progress while the same faces run the show with their regular-managed decline.

From BBC

Jost was forced to tell the show’s producer, “Retire, b—, let me run the show,” while Che was given the line, “I haven’t been that excited since I saw a white woman drinking unattended.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Over the past months, it has . . . become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience,” Owens wrote in a staff memo.

From Salon

“Over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Owens wrote in a message obtained by the Times.

From Los Angeles Times

One way to maintain its hold on a glorious past is for the musicians to run the show.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• administer 
• conduct 
• dominate 
• govern 
• guide 
• handle 
• maintain 
• operate 
• oversee 
• regulate 
• run 
• supervise 
• take care of 
• take over 
• train 
• use